In the first part of a new series for AMBITION, Jane Sunley outlines the challenge for business leaders in building remarkable, people-centric, profitable businesses in the 21st century
Maybe you’re a CEO, a CFO, a business owner, a head of people (in one of its many guises), an operational leader, a line manager, a marketer or are generally interested in the wonderful and very valuable asset that is ‘human resources’?
If so, you’ll know that only by engaging, enabling and empowering an organisation’s people, can true competitive advantage be achieved in business.
You’ll also know that the world has never been more volatile, less certain, more complex or more fraught with ambiguity than it is today.
When it comes to ‘the people stuff’, business leaders still tend to overcomplicate the issue, engaging in a silo mentality, implementing ‘tick box strategies’, and consigning much needed action to the ‘too difficult’ box. In some cases those responsible for people strategy don’t believe they have, or are unable to argue persuasively for, the essential resource needed to bring about the required change.
Why? Because, even in the 21st century, so many of those accountable for ‘the people stuff’ are still stuck with ‘the old ways’ of operating, some of which were designed as far back as the industrial revolution; most, long before many of today’s working population were even born, years before the advent of technology as we know it. This is an unwelcome hangover from the time when manufacturing trumped service and when leadership was based on autocracy; when overdone process overruled common sense.
As a result, even the most savvy ‘people people’ are drowning in swathes of policies, tied up in compliance and legislative matters, desperately trying to make the numbers work without the right tools to do the job they’re actually there to do.
If we look at the falling productivity levels of UK plc, this approach is clearly not working and, if we’re being direct about it, business as we know it is, in far too many instances, just not cutting it:
- Gallup‘s 2015 global workplace study, across 142 countries, revealed that only 13% of the working population does much more than show up on time and meet the minimum expectations for their jobs…
- The Deloitte 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report stated that the gap is widening between what business leaders want and what HR is delivering. Engagement and culture have skyrocketed to their number one issue around the world (87% of companies rated it important or very important). Yet Deloitte’s research with employer ratings website Glassdoor, showed that only half of all employees would recommend their employer to their friends…
- The UK Investors in People’s 2015 Jobs exodus trends employee sentiment poll, found 65% of employees are not happy in their role – meaning companies need to work harder at engaging and retaining their talent, and also at attracting talent from elsewhere…
The Deloitte report also makes the case for a new HR playbook – one that taps HR to be more agile, forward thinking, and bolder in its solutions.
The People Formula sets out to achieve this by:
- providing the ‘how’ for people leaders
- bridging the gap between academic thought and real-world use
- packing in plenty of do-able, uncommon, common sense advice which can be actioned immediately
- providing techniques and examples that are workable within any size or sector of business.
If you don’t have a dedicated HR resource, then this book is great for you too. I very much believe in the business case for helping transition HR from ‘doing’ to ‘facilitating’ – to becoming a business-savvy, business driver – and you’re halfway there already. Who doesn’t want their organisation to be as successful and durable as possible?
Who knows what the next 10 – 20 years will bring? What will talent management ‘look like’ in the future?
What is certain is that businesses will always need talented people, and attracting, engaging, developing and retaining them is a business challenge that is becoming more important.
In writing this book, I’ve talked to some of the UK’s most successful HR directors, CEOs, entrepreneurs
and innovators from organisations
large and small, incorporating some of
their suggestions so you can see, first-hand, ‘how it’s done’.
DON’T JUST TAKE IT FROM ME
“I think we can expect more volatility. Organisations face new challenges every day. The explosion of technology has changed how we manage and an influx of millennials and knowledge workers into organisations means these staff don’t want to be micromanaged – they’re looking for meaning, purpose and coaching.”
VLATKA HLUPIC, PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER
“The workplace has changed enormously and has become a more ethereal thing for employees. People want a career in multiple places and are prepared to take jobs for the experience and to have a story for their CV. The repercussions mean employers have to ask themselves: “Why would people want to work here? What’s in it for them?:
“There is a competition for talent and small businesses like ours in the digital sector are competing for talent with startups, rapidly growing businesses like Facebook, as well as corporates such as investment banks. We’re competing on a world stage – there is no local labour market, so we have to be a desirable place to work.
Employers can’t fool employees anymore; if they’re not able to pay as much as competitors, they have to know what they can give staff that other employers can’t.’
TIM MORGAN, CEO, MINT
DIGITAL
“The big question on everyone’s lips is what jobs will be like in 10 or 20 years. The exponential revolution going on in technology is disrupting businesses faster than organisations can plan for, never mind that regulation can be brought up to date for! Once we work that out, the biggest challenges will be the same as today…’
ISABEL NAIDOO, VICE PRESIDENT HUMAN RESOURCES, FIS GLOBAL
“It’s difficult to forecast and estimate for the future. I think technology will affect working patterns. Millennials are coming into workplaces and they have a new view, which is different from baby boomers and generation X.
“It’s a volatile marketplace, commodities are being devalued and it’s impossible to predict. Also there are geo-political factors such as the rise of radical Islam and relocation of people across Europe that will have an impact on the workplace of the future. These will challenge traditional workplace hierarchies and lead to upheaval.’
GARETH HUGHES, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND HEAD OF HR (EUROPE), ROYAL BANK OF CANADA CAPITAL MARKETS
The bigger picture
Put simply, I know that business success is truly dependent upon three key I’s:
- Ideas: compelling innovations, around which you can create an easily marketable brand
- Investment: capital for startup and growth plus cash flow; the life-blood of every organisation
- Individuals: the right talented people, in the right roles, delivering innovation and high levels of service, realising their potential – in a happy, healthy and inspired way.
These three are of equal importance; yet the third ‘I’ is rarely given the attention, time, resourcing and investment it needs or deserves. There is a massive gulf between recognising the power of people and delivering a robust people strategy in our fast-moving, ever-more demanding and diverse world.
Becoming people-centric is the way to go. This is the way to get things done, secure the necessary investment and create commitment from the very top.
Yet I also know people- centricity can be achieved by anyone and everyone. And this lies at the crux of the matter. HR departments cannot be solely responsible for the third ‘I’ – it’s a team job; one in which everyone, in every organisation, has to play their part, from the guy sweeping the corridor to the chairman of the board.
By understanding how to join up the people stuff into a clear, straightforward strategy, any organisation can build a robust and actionable plan that will transform it, with measurable and profitable results to boot.
I’ve seen very successful small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that employ no internal HR resource at all, turning over tens of millions of pounds and winning prestigious people awards along the way. This is achievable because the founders have set a clear direction and tone for the people stuff and they – and their employees – all know their part to play. What a great model for getting this stuff right.
Fighting to survive
So why does the people stuff fall by the wayside of good intention so often if it’s so important?
The answer is worryingly simple – because many business leaders and owners are often too busy dealing with the business of day to day. They’re fighting to survive and thrive, and in doing so, allow the subject of people to fall off the bottom of their ever- growing to-do lists. Consequently, people become disengaged, dropping in and out of the organisation at an alarming rate, costing time, hassle and money. Most organisations don’t measure the cost of replacing a leaver – it’s just too difficult, too scary or both. Is it any wonder they’re fighting for said survival?
In case you’re not convinced (or someone you know isn’t – yet), I’m going to lay out these costs for you in black and white. For a start, there are the direct costs of recruiting a replacement (recruitment fees, time, interim cover, induction and so on). The big impact though, is made by the indirect costs – the expenditure business leaders often don’t even pause to consider (see step 10).
These include:
- knowledge loss
- general instability
- service disruption/quality
- customer relationships/loss
- increased threat of competition
- other people leaving
- drop in productivity
- effect on morale
- disruption to team dynamic
- effects on reputation.
You can probably come up with lots more if you really think about it…
So why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?
Again, the answer is not earth-shattering. Put simply, growth organisations and their leaders do not make the time or allow the resource needed to deliver on the people stuff, even though they know they should. The research speaks for itself:
- 100% of business leaders say you need a people plan
- 98% say developing people is vital
- 90% are convinced that people create competitive advantage
Yet:
- 86% admit to not having a consistent people plan
- 85% say managing people development that supports business growth is a challenge
- 70% state time and finance as barriers
Source: Purple Cubed with networks associated with Cranfield Business School and Lancaster Management University
While it’s encouraging that so many organisations recognise getting the ‘people stuff’ right is the key to achieving objectives, it’s also shocking that there’s such a notable shortfall when it comes to actually delivering on it. Some people have told me it’s just too difficult. Too big a task. There are other priorities. Others say it’s impossible to get buy-in from the top. There isn’t the budget. We don’t have the people to do it. Yada, yada, it goes on…
Well, the majority of organisations depend on people to make them successful; harnessing the power of individuals to help deliver business success and growth is not an optional extra. It is a business imperative.
In many businesses the connection between people and profit quite simply is not being made, as corporates battle to put plans in place to reach their targets. Why aren’t the people analytics reported within the annual report as with other key metrics? Why is ‘people’ not top of the agenda at the board or business meeting?
Although becoming people-centric can’t, and won’t, happen in every organisation overnight, the journey has to start somewhere.
By breaking down the important stuff into manageable chunks, it really is possible to achieve and definitely worth the effort.
Jane Sunley is a CEO, celebrated author, lecturer, speaker and mentor as well as an established and renowned authority on ‘all things people’.
Following a career as a business leader within the hospitality industry, the root of her pragmatic, real-world approach, Jane co-founded a successful specialist recruitment company which she exited in 2001.
Having realised that if someone could help companies to become a great place to work, there wouldn’t be such a crisis over ‘the talent war’, she formed learnpurple which, in line with its expanded remit, rebranded as Purple Cubed, early in 2013. The company, which is on a mission to show the world just how to engage its people, through award-winning software plus expertise, has won many awards and accolades including UK’s Best HR Consultancy (CIPD 2014).
Jane is a best-selling author having written Purple your People: the secrets to inspired, happy, more profitable people (Crimson) in 2001 and It’s Never OK to Kiss The Interviewer – and other secrets to surviving, thriving and high-fiving at work (LID) in 2003. In 2014 she was chosen from over 1,600 authors to contribute to 20/20 – 20 great lists by 20 outstanding business thinkers (LID).
She is a non-executive director and a visiting fellow at two UK universities as well as speaking and writing extensively on the subject of people and HR.
